


A Doctor's Tale

by muldy



Category: Star Trek: Voyager
Genre: Angst, Fluff, Hurt / Comfort, I mean everything really
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-23
Updated: 2017-11-09
Packaged: 2019-01-21 20:57:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,225
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12465812
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/muldy/pseuds/muldy
Summary: A series of ficlets where the Doctor observes Janeway and Chakotay's relationship.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> These ficlets will vary in length :-)

* * *

The first time he noticed anything the Doctor thought very little of it. Chakotay had rushed her in as though the world was ending, although the Doctor was confused as the Captain had a smile on her lips.

‘I’m fine, Chakotay,’ she placed a hand lightly on his chest.

The Doctor didn’t miss the concern on the Commander’s face, but felt irritation at his presence.

‘Commander? What’s going on?’ the Doctor asked.

Chakotay stepped back quickly as though he had forgotten that there was anyone else in the room.

‘I uh…’ he started.

Janeway cut him off. ‘The Commander thought teaching me boxing might be a fun pastime, but he accidentally clipped my cheekbone.’

‘Does it hurt?’ the Doctor asked, scanning her.

‘Not particularly,’ she smiled at the Commander.

His cheeks flushed and a small smile began to spread across his lips. ‘I just wanted to make sure I hadn’t injured the person whose safety is my responsibility.’

‘There could be some slight bruising,’ the Doctor commented. ‘But nothing even remotely serious. Although might I suggest you would be better off with a nice game of Hoverball?’

‘Or an evening at Sandrine’s playing pool,’ the Captain smiled. ‘I believe you owe me a drink for this, Commander.’

There was silence between them for a moment before the Commander seemed to relax.

‘If you insist,’ he held out an arm to her and she took it.

‘I assume I’m right to go, Doctor?’ she question.

‘I’m not sure you needed to be here in the first place,’ the Doctor muttered.

They both looked at him in confusion. Humans could be so irritating.

‘You’re right to go,’ he answered her question.

He watched them leave sickbay, her arm looped through his, and he wondered for a moment why a First Officer would feel it necessary to bring his well-trained Captain to sickbay for such a minor mishap.

* * *

 


	2. Chapter 2

* * *

He was strangely excited to have them both back in his care. He’d felt a strange kind of guilt for not being able to resolve the issue. He should have be able to. He had the entirety of Starfleet’s knowledge at his beck and call and yet he couldn’t cure a disease caused by a bug bite?

Ridiculous.

Eagerly awaiting their entrance, he stood alert, a smile on his face.

The faces that greeted him were less than enthusiastic. He was surprised.

‘Captain! Commander! It is wonderful to see you,’ he tried anyway.

Chakotay forced a smile and took a step towards him. ‘It’s good to be back. Although I’d prefer to get this thing out of our systems before we leave orbit.’

Janeway didn’t say a word, her mind seemed to be far away. Distracted.

The Doctor wondered if perhaps she was tired.

‘Please, take a seat,’ he gestured to two nearby biobeds.

As he readied the Vidian’s cure for injection he watched them sit in silence opposite each other. He was almost ready to return to them, Chakotay finally spoke.

‘Kathryn,’ Chakotay spoke softly.

The Doctor stopped.

There was something in his tone that seemed extremely unfamiliar, something the Doctor couldn’t quite place. And he had used her first name. Why?

He wasn’t particularly good at understanding human emotions, but something told him now was not the time to return to his patients, so instead he continued pretending to ready the medication, turning his back to them to give them privacy.

‘Yes Commander?’ she returned, her voice harsh, clipped.

‘You don’t have to do that,’ he said.

There was a long silence.

Should he turn around? Perhaps something had gone wrong and his attention was required?

And then she spoke.

‘Yes, I do,’ she took a deep breath. ‘I can’t do this unless you’re just my Commander.’

‘Just your Commander? What about your friend? Can I be that?’

Anger, that’s what that emotion was. That one the Doctor recognised.

Then silence again.

Were humans always so slow and incapable of expressing whatever was on their mind? Didn’t they realise he had things to do?

‘Of course,’ her voice seemed to catch as she said it. ‘I need you to be that too, just…’

‘Not anything else,’ he finished. ‘I understand that, Kathryn.’

The Doctor heard her take a deep breath, and finally thinking the conversation was over he turned around in time to see Chakotay reach out and wipe a tear from her cheek.

‘Please don’t,’ she whispered.

And suddenly he understood.

This was the human emotion he knew so much about, yet didn’t understand in any way.

They were in love.

And they seemed to have forgotten he was there.

‘Okay, who’s first?’ he asked loudly, diverting his eyes to what he was carrying to avoid either of them realising he’d seen their interaction.

Chakotay sitting back on the biobed. ‘Captain?’

She looked up at him. ‘Go right ahead.’

And as he injected the serum into her, he watched as her eyes dropped back to Chakotay, and there her gaze remained until the two of them left the sick bay.

* * *

 


	3. Chapter 3

* * *

‘Captain, I need you to step away,’ the Doctor commanded.

For a moment he thought he was going to have to physically tear her away from her First Officer, but she finally took a step away.

The Doctor scanned him.

‘He has swelling on his brain, I’m going to have to induce a coma,’ the Doctor said.

He glanced at the Captain for her permission, although he was going to do it either way he thought that it would be appropriate to at least pretend it was up to her.

She nodded.

‘Do whatever you need to do,’ she replied.

‘Kes, I need your help,’ the Doctor called out for his medic.

As they worked to repair the damage to the Commander, the Captain stood against the wall, not tearing her eyes away from what was happening in front of her. When he seemed stable, the Doctor noticed that she also had blood trickling down the side of her face.

‘Let me check you,’ he said, indicating another biobed.

She shook her head. ‘I’m fine.’

‘It’s not a choice,’ he said.

‘Then do it here, I’m not leaving him until I’m sure he’s safe,’ she whispered. ‘This is my fault.’

The Doctor scanned her head. It was a superficial wound, which meant her stubbornness was just an ingrained part of her personality and not something he could fix with the wave of a tricorder.

‘I don’t see how it could have been your fault that you were attacked by smugglers on an exploratory expedition,’ the Doctor replied.

‘The mission was my idea,’ she said quietly.

‘You’re the Captain, all the missions are your idea,’ he countered.

The look he got in response told him that was the end of that line of conversation.

She found herself a seat and stayed by his side all night. As the night went on and she grew tired, he watched her reach out and take Chakotay’s hand.

Eventually she fell asleep in the chair, her fingers still wrapped around his.

The Doctor wondered if he should wake her, demand she go to bed, but he wondered if she would ever agree to go and at least sleep in a chair was better than no sleep.

He was deep into writing his report when he saw the Commander stir. His instinct was to jump up and check on him, however he saw the look on Chakotay’s face as he saw the Captain asleep by his side and he knew this wasn’t a moment to interrupt.

He checked the Commander’s stats on the nearby monitor.

Everything looked fine.

Looking back down at his report he tried to ignore them, but somehow he couldn’t. He was beginning to become far too emotionally invested in the two senior officers. He wanted them both to be happy, but was well aware that regulations stated nothing should happen between them.

Perhaps it was curiousity, wanting to know how far across the line the Captain would actually go for herself.

He watched as she stirred. Clearly Chakotay had said something. And instantly she stood up, placing her other hand on his face. They spoke quietly for a moment, her hand stroking his face, his grip tightening around her fingers.

After a few moments he pulled their entangled hands up and kissed her fingertips lightly.

The Doctor felt himself copying the involuntary smile that crossed the Captain’s lips.

He half expected her to return the gesture, but instead she guided his hand to the Commander’s chest and held it there for a moment, saying something that made him smile in return.

‘Doctor,’ she called out. ‘He’s awake. I better get some rest, but let me know if there are any further complications.’

And her First Officer’s eyes didn’t leave her until she was out of sight.

‘How are you feeling, Commander?’ the Doctor asked.

‘A lot better than I did last time I was conscious,’ he joked.

* * *

 


	4. Chapter 4

* * *

He watched them as they sat in the back of the shuttle, Tuvok at the helm. They had walked arm in arm from the crash site back to the shuttle, but for some reason the Doctor couldn’t stop watching. The Captain was explaining to them what had happened to her, but Chakotay’s face said all it had to. His eyes were glued to her, his hand resting lightly on the bench between them, a little too close for a First Officer and a Captain.

It was almost infuriating to the Doctor, to have arrive on the scene to see Chakotay holding her in his arms, tears streaming down his face, and to know that she would have no idea of what he had just gone through.

The Doctor had watched as Tuvok helped Chakotay to his feet, pulling him aside for a moment.

_‘Commander Chakotay, do you require something to calm down?’_

_‘No, I’ll be fine,’ he’d replied. ‘I’m sorry, I let my emotions get the better of me…’_

_‘It is understandable, given the circumstances,’ Tuvok had replied._

_The Doctor had been working on the Captain and was unable to see what happened next but there was a long pause and Chakotay seemed to calm._

_‘I’m sorry Tuvok, it’s my job to protect her,’ Chakotay said quietly. ‘I failed and –‘_

_‘You have not failed, she is still alive,’ Tuvok cut him off._

_Chakotay nodded, relief spreading across his face._

Now the Commander couldn’t even tear his eyes away from his Captain, the look of concern and affection written all over his face. The Captain finished her story and Tuvok turned his full attention back to piloting the ship. The Doctor subtly watched the two commanding officers.

Chakotay reached out and took her hand and the way her eyes swung to his, partially alarmed and partially comforted said everything the Doctor needed to know.

Letting his eyes drop to the padd in front of him he listened rather than attract attention to the fact he was paying too close attention to them.

‘I thought I’d lost you,’ Chakotay said quietly. ‘I’ve never been so scared in my life.’

He spoke so quietly he knew they were under the impression no one could hear them, and for a moment the Doctor considered whether he should continue listening – luckily he could pretend to himself that it was just about caring for the Captain’s health.

‘I know,’ she said quietly. ‘I saw it all – you holding my lifeless body and crying, you watching me die, my funeral…I know none of it was real but it was beyond horrible to watch.’

‘The first part was real,’ he whispered. ‘You were dying in my arms and all I could think was how I never…’

‘I know,’ she cut him off.

The silence that followed seemed to stretch for an eternity and the Doctor glanced up at them to make sure they were okay.

She had turned to face her First Officer, her fingers woven through his and their palms pressed against each other. He was watching their intertwined hands while her eyes studied his face closely.

‘Don’t ever do that to me again,’ he said sternly, followed by a broad smile.

The corners of her lips turned up involuntarily and her face lit up with joy. Then she noticed the Doctor watching and she pulled her hand quickly away from Chakotay’s.

Chakotay didn’t seem surprised, but he still refused to tear his eyes away from her, watching as brushed some dirt from her uniform pants and sat up straighter, acting like nothing had happened. And the heartbreak that sat so clearly on the Commander’s face at the realisation that this again wasn’t going to change anything between them was too much for the Doctor to watch.

Pretending he had only been doing his job, he stood up and walked to them, muttering something about a scan. It seemed to work, the Captain relaxed again, but she kept her eyes firmly on the Doctor.

For the first time he wished there was some kind of counsellor on board, he knew there was no one she could talk to. He added a note to improve his counselling skills. Perhaps he could help, although human emotions were far from his strength.

He wanted her to understand the one thing he couldn’t help with.

That it was okay to be human.

* * *

 


End file.
